Cut a long story short my question pertains to those who might have a cursory knowledge of Australian Property Law but would also welcome the education opinions of others.
~18mths ago my wife and I purchased our first home - an existing ~35yr old double brick property near Coffs Harbour. As part of the conveyancing process on the property in the Requisitions on Title we asked of the vendors one our queries was:

For clarity's sake the definition of latent is: (of a quality or state) existing but not yet developed or manifest; hidden or concealed.
The vendor's response was:
We've since found that the property may be significantly affected by foundation/structural issues and that previous damage that was caused was repaired and not divulged by the vendors e.g replacement of damaged mortar between damaged brickwork sections, filling and painting over over cracks on internal rendered walls. This is done across multiple sections of the dwelling so isn't a 'one off' perhaps forgotten thing rather appears to be highly systematic & done to hide existing issues to ensure the sale.
My understanding of this area of law is that a vendor who answers falsely may be liable for damages if the false answer was intended to induce and does the sale of the property. I'm wondering how truly enforceable such a matter would be.
I'm sorry to have to ask such a dour question - and alas I'll also likely have to post up seeking guidance for assessing and possible repair strategies on the property as well but thats something of a separate matter.
It'd also be handy to gather a recommended path/workflow to resolve the matter - I've reason to believe the vendor will be hostile & have not made any contact with them at this point (though of course as they've covered up a lot of the damage & also likely know significantly more about it than ourselves any info they may have would be very helpful in arranging possible repairs etc).
Please let me know if any additional info required.
Kind regards,
Nick
PS. Apologies for the small scope of the images - particularly with the rendered wall's it's very hard to take an image that shows the differing contrast of the paint etc to indicate the underlying crack was covered/hidden. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅
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